Who we are

Welcome to Open Study College…

At Open Study College, we empower every member of our family to flourish.

As a family founded college, we think of everyone as an extended member of our family. Our team, our tutors and most importantly our students. You won’t be alone throughout your learning journey, and we’re here to support you every step of the way.

Everyone’s journey, whatever that may be, is personal, different, exciting and sometimes difficult. We know that we are in the privileged position of being the enablers of positive, life altering change. We are here to do what we can to help people achieve their goals and thrive in life – we are an expert, a friendly ear, a 24/7 support and a wildly enthusiastic cheerleader!

We understand that life is busy, that’s why we offer over 700 courses, all designed to study around your existing work and life commitments.

Here, you’ll find out more about our history, our founders, the team at OSC HQ and our values.

Our family story

Founded by father and daughter Mark and Samantha Rutter, with the support of other family members, Open Study College has been there for our students since 2007.

Mark had decades of experience within the education industry, in particular distance learning. He is passionate about helping people better themselves and felt there could be so much more he could do to support learners, including offering higher quality courses and tutor support. Together with his daughter, he decided to sacrifice a senior career, sell the family home and put everything into setting up Open Study College.

At the beginning, the business was being run from the small garage of their family home. Mark and Samantha would offer ICB courses and courses from other providers to students, and with the support of other family members, pack course materials in their garage to send out to students daily, whilst also balancing other jobs to keep the business going. It was certainly a family effort to get the business off the ground with many of those family members still a significant part of the college today.

2009 was a pivotal point within the college, as we started to write and develop our own courses. From then we just grew and grew!

We now have a fantastic team comprising of expert tutors, knowledgeable and friendly student advisors and a caring student support team.

Our Chairman - Mark Rutter

We don’t call ourselves the distance learning experts for nothing! Mark has been working in the education industry for almost three decades and specifically within the distance learning sector. He used that knowledge and experience to set up the foundations of Open Study College, building it on what he believed the distance learning education industry needed.

Find out more about Mark.

Our CEO - Samantha Rutter

CEO Samantha worked her way up the ladder in the retail industry on a management scheme for a luxury chocolate brand, whilst also studying a Institute of Legal Executives course. However, she always had ambitions of running her own company and a very keen interest in business.

With her business and commercial experience, when Mark suggested setting up Open Study College, Sam felt this was the opportunity she was looking for to combine her skills and her desire to make a difference to people’s lives, and she’s never looked back!

Samantha is an inspiration to everyone at Open Study College. She has won numerous awards including ‘Influential Women in Business Award’ and ‘Outstanding Business Person’. Samantha was also shortlisted in the Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders 2020, an initiative by The LDC (a subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group) and supported by The Telegraph, developed to highlight exceptional leaders of the UK’s most successful and fastest-growing medium-sized companies. Read more here.

She has great ambitions for Open Study College’s future including creating partnerships to ensure people across the world have access to education.

Find out more about Samantha.

Our Student Support Team

Every one of our team is committed to ensuring you receive the best support possible throughout your study journey. No more so than our student support team, who will be on hand as well as your tutor, to answer any queries or questions you have.

They are a friendly and patient team who are hardworking and dedicated to ensuring you have the best distance learning study experience.

Our Adviser Team

Nothing is more important to us than for you to choose a course that’s right for you. That’s why every member of our adviser team has extensive knowledge of our courses and will advise you on a course that’s right for your future, goals and career prospects.

They will guide you through the enrollment process, from helping you choose a course to finding the right finance options. Each member of the team is friendly and dedicated to ensuring you pick the option best for you.

Our Values

Open Study College was built on family values. Those values have always been at the core of what we do from when Mark and Sam founded OSC back in 2007.

Over the last 13 years we have grown to include almost 50 members at OSC HQ, have 19 award wins to date and over 100,000 learners, all of whom we believe are members of the OSC family and together are supported to achieve their ambitions, just like your own family do!

At OSC we empower our family members to move forward with their goals by always having their interests at the heart of what we do. That’s not just our learner members – helping them achieve their ambitions, but also our team members – developing them so they feel fulfilled in their careers.

Learning should be fun. We love enriching people’s lives every day and providing them with the excitement to achieve their dreams.

Our values are excitement, ambition and togetherness.

Helping you to progress

We understand that it’s difficult to make the decision to study a distance learning course. Whether you didn’t get the grades the first time around, looking to change your career or wanting to boost your skills, just believe in yourself and we can help you get there.

With Open Study College you can start from the beginning and work your way up. There is no rush and there is no pressure. You can study your GCSE’s right through to Level 7 courses, at your own pace and on your own terms!

Study at any age, there really is no limit. If you have any more questions about how distance learning works, visit our FAQs page.

Payment plans available

Enrol today and pay nothing until December with a finance plan from etika. We have multiple payment options available and will help you choose the best plan to suit you.

Study at your own pace

You’ll study whenever you want, at your own pace. There are no strict deadlines (you’ll have up to a year and most of our courses require 80 hours of study – that’s around 1 hour and a half a week).

Full tutor support

Learning from home doesn’t mean that you are on your own – you have full support from a tutor. Our tutors help you every step of the way, you can contact them as regularly as you want.